Celebrating Brigham (my miracle boy)

Today I am filled with peace, grattitude, and joy. I don't know why Brigham turning five seems to hit me harder than his other birthdays, maybe it's because when he was first born it was uncertain as to how long his life would be and five seems to be a BIG milestone.

Five years ago today I went into preterm labor by six weeks. The little boy who came into our lives changed our hearts forever. He showed up looking like a "blueberry muffin" with little bluish, purple spots all over his body. This baffled the doctors. 

While Brigham was in the Nicu they performed test after test on him to figure out what the problem was. One Doctor even told us he was 90% sure he had CMV and told us depending on how severe and to where the virus spreads he could have severe problems and disabilities or we may even have to decide whether to keep him on a ventilator or let him go home to Heavenly Father. This was a very spiritual experience for me for I felt the power of the Atonement, through the spirit, bind up my breaking heart. Thankfully the test for CMV came back negative.

 Taking Brigham home from the Nicu, we now thought that Brigham was fine and his little bumps would just go away. After a follow up visit with a pediatrician, I got a phone call from the office. They told me that his white blood cell count was high and they sent us to an oncologist. After a couple visits to the oncologist we discovered his white blood cells were climbing rapidly while his platelets and red blood cells were falling. We were then sent to Primary Children's. 

One hospital stay at Primary's was tests, tests and more tests. We went home from primary's gearing up to make plans to move to the Salt Lake area so that Brigham could go through a bone marrow transplant and chemotherapy. They already put his name on the list to get a matched donor. They were 90% sure he had a certain type of leukemia, JMML (90% seems to be a popular percentage). 

I then received a phone call with his official diagnoses. Ready for it? Platelet-derived growth factor receptor beta, Translocated myelodysasia with eosinophilia. The cure for this would also be a bone-marrow transplant. However, after a team of specialists met together they determined that it would be worth it to try him on a brand new medication instead. A medication that was new for adults and had never been given to children, let alone a 3 month old. We would need to have another hospital stay at Primary's to try him on this medication where he could be under observation. 

Because of modern medicine and the power of the Priesthood Brigham miraculously showed improvement and was in remission by the time he was a year old. 

Today we celebrated Brigham and his five years of life. I love my sweet Brigham so much and I am so grateful to get to be his mom. This is why I am filled with grattitude, peace, and joy today.